POLITICS-US: Europe Puts Conditions on Its Support for Reprisals

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Sep 14 2001 (IPS) - European countries are stipulating their support for punishing those responsible for the Tuesday terrorist attacks in New York and Washington upon respect for international law and human rights.

The declarations made by heads of state and political leaders, as well as warnings from experts, refer to the possibility that the United States could decide to attack targets in other countries in retaliation, but may end up doing so without the consensus and support of its allies, as has occurred in the past.

Europe fears that Washington could order military attacks without being certain of the guilt or responsibility of the country or region targeted.

King Juan Carlos of Spain, Germany’s Defence minister Rudolf Scharping, and spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Yves Brodeur, coincided Thursday in saying that a response to the Tuesday attacks would have European support if it is determined that they originated from outside the United States.

These comments were made at the same time as US President George W. Bush stated that the world is facing “the first war of the 21st century.”

US Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz asked his country’s Congress for a 20-billion-dollar budget to attend to the victims and their families, to begin clean-up operations, and to prepare the armed forces “so that the president has the whole range of options in front of him.”

Meanwhile, Scharping said in Bonn that “we do not face a war, we face the question of what is an appropriate response,” not as vengeance, but to fight the brutality of international terrorism and thus eliminate its effectiveness.

For his part, Brodeur, in Brussels, stressed that NATO is committed to backing the United States in a possible response to the terrorist attacks if it is established that they were orchestrated from abroad. This support will not be automatic, he said, but would be provided, if the situation arises, after carrying out consultations.

The King of Spain pointed out that “the existence of new forms of legal cooperation among democratic nations offers us unique channels for action, which must ensure the effective implementation of justice” in the case of the terrorists.

Juan Carlos added that, before the maximum judicial authorities, the “value of justice as a shared principle of all free and democratic societies, and the continued validity and defence of the supremacy of law, must be the fundamental link in any concerted action against terror.”

The head of the Madrid-based Centre for Peace Research, Mariano Aguirre, agreed in highlighting the need to respect the law.

Aguirre, after condemning the attacks in the United States and clarifying that the ends do not always justify the means, said that the US bombings against Cambodia in the 1970s were illegal under international law.

Along those same lines, Serge July, editor of the left-leaning Paris daily ‘Liberation’, said Thursday that “the best defence against terrorism is not war, but justice.”

He explained that Washington may be anxious to respond to the attacks, but also “is limited by the ties that link it to the Islamic movements, since the Afghanistan war against the Soviets and since religious fanaticism began to be utilised in destabilising the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union.

July concluded that, because of this, Bush will have to mix with the rest of the world, its injustices and its horrors. Not in a prepotent way, but rather with a policy “that breaks with the arm of fanatical Islam, (which) at the root implies the deactivation of bombs with long fuses that are represented by numerous conflicts, beginning with the Middle East.”

For its part, the Centre for Peace Research issued a statement asserting that “it is essential to avoid interpreting these attacks as the beginning of a supposed war between civilisations, particularly between the western and Muslim worlds.”

“Whoever the responsible parties are, they should be considered citizens, members of a terrorist group, but the entire national, religious, or ethnic identity to which they belong must not be blamed,” said the Centre, which was founded in 1985 and specialises in international trends, particularly armed conflicts, globalisation and its impacts, and development.

“Terrorist attacks are unjustified, but indicate the level of stagnation of some political situations, such as the Middle East, and demonstrate how violence in itself replaces dialogue, negotiations and even the principles of international human rights law,” says the communiqué.

Given this situation, “it is essential that the United States and all democratic and economically advanced countries review their policies towards the periphery of the international system and especially the ways they might contribute more towards creating peace and less towards intensifying conflicts in areas like the Middle East.”